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Dark Rituals
| rarity = Common | type = Town Enchantment | casting_cost = | upkeep_cost = None | research_cost = | effects = The enchanted town produces an extra amount of equal to the amount currently generated by its Shrine, Temple, Parthenon and Cathedral (if any). The town's Unrest level also rises by +1, and its Population Growth is reduced by about 25%. }} Dark Rituals is a Common Town Enchantment belonging to the realm. It may only be cast on the overland map, and must be targeted at a friendly Town. For the base Casting Cost of only , the spell will generate an extra amount of for the town's owner equal to the combined amount generated by any Shrine, Temple, Parthenon and/or Cathedral present in the town. The effect lasts as long as Dark Rituals is not dispelled or canceled manually. Although it is a Town Enchantment in every respect, Dark Rituals has no Upkeep Costs. On the other hand, it increases the Unrest level in the enchanted town by +1, and also reduces Population Growth by roughly 25% (after all other growth-altering effects are taken into account). Effects Dark Rituals encourages the population of a targeted Town to sacrifice its own people in the religious Town Buildings, significantly increasing the output of those buildings. On the other hand, the town's Unrest level increases, and its Population Growth decreases. Power Output Bonus While Dark Rituals is in effect, the town's output of is increased significantly. The amount of generated by Dark Rituals is equal to the total amount of Power currently generated by the religious buildings already existing there (if any): When all four buildings are present, they will normally produce together - so Dark Rituals will produce an extra for this town. The extra is automatically recalculated whenever the town's composition changes, so it will automatically increase if the town constructs more of the above Town Buildings while the spell is already in effect. Conversely, it will decrease if the town loses any of these buildings. This extra is added to the wizard's total Power base, and may be distributed like Power from any other source: into generation, Research or increasing Spell Casting Skill as necessary. Dark Rituals and Infernal Power Dark Rituals is cumulative with the effect from the Infernal Power Retort. Infernal Power increases the output of each religious building by 50%, and then Dark Rituals produces an amount of Power equal to the new total produced by those buildings. Half-points are only rounded off at the end, so the net effect is that the power output of those buildings is tripled. ; The Bad Moon is a Random Event. Its multiplicative effect behaves exactly the same as Infernal Power and Dark Rituals. A confluence of all three factors results in religious buildings putting out six times their ordinary output. When a Bad Moon occurs, you may want to rush as many religious buildings as you can, and throw Dark Rituals in spite of its penalties, though be warned that the average duration is only twenty turns. Its reverse, Good Moon, halves output, effectively negating Dark Rituals. Unrest and Population Growth Penalties Unusually for a Town Enchantment, Dark Rituals has no Upkeep Costs. On the other hand, it does have some drawbacks that would discourage simply casting it on any town you have: it increases Unrest by a small amount, and reduces Population Growth. Unrest is increased by exactly +1. This can turn an extra citizen into a Rebel in this town, assuming that no effect (such as the unrest-reduction from the religious buildings listed above) manages to offset this. Rebels consume like all other citizens, but produce neither nor - making them a burden on the town's resources. Population Growth is reduced by 25% - though rounding-off errors may lead to losing much more (or sometimes less) than an exact 25%. Loss of Population Growth means that the town will evolve less rapidly, taking much more time to reach its Maximum Population. Usage Dark Rituals may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of . It may be targeted at any friendly Town which does not already have a Dark Rituals spell effecting it. When the spell is cast, the game automatically opens a town-information window showing the contents of the target town. A few moments later, a glowing pentagram will appear among the town's buildings, where dark-robed figures will be seen raising and lowering their arms in prayer to the dark lords. This indicates that the town is under the influence of this spell. The ritual will remain visible in the town's information screen as long as the spell remains in effect. Uncharacteristically, Dark Rituals does not have any Upkeep Costs associated with it. This means that the spell does not draw any from your Mana pool at the start of each turn, and thus cannot fizzle on its own. On the other hand, the penalties inflicted on the town act to discourage simply casting Dark Rituals on each town you own - though this doesn't dissuade all players from doing so. If you've placed Dark Rituals on a town, you may remove it by examining the town's details and clicking the text reading "Dark Rituals" in the town's Enchantments list. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's associated penalties from the town. The extra income generated by Dark Rituals can be seen when clicking on the in the town's output display. It is denoted by the word "Dark Rituals" followed by a number of denoting the extra amount produced specifically by this spell. Acquisition As a Common spell, Dark Rituals may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least Spellbooks. Customized Wizards possessing up to Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn. Wizards with Spellbooks are guaranteed to have this spell available for casting as soon as the game begins. Wizards with or fewer Spellbooks who have not chosen Dark Rituals as a guaranteed spell have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research if it is not alraedy available for casting. Dark Rituals has a base Research Cost of . With at least Spellbook, the Dark Rituals spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell. Strategy Dark Rituals provides a small amount of bonus from a town, which grows as that town produces more and more religious Buildings. It can eventually produce a significant amount of , roughly equal to a single Node. This requires the town to produce many religious buildings. Though it has no Upkeep Costs, Dark Rituals does inhibit the town's growth and increases Unrest, so it may not be a very good idea to just cast this spell on every town you own. Instead, you might want to hold off casting this spell until a town is well-developed, containing at least a few religious buildings (construction of a Parthenon is usually the indicator that a town is ready for Dark Rituals). Towns that cannot build Parthenons at all (due to the local Race not being able to do so) are usually not good targets for this spell, and are better off being allowed to grow faster. Also note that towns with high Unrest are also probably better off being left alone, since Dark Rituals will only exacerbate this. Again, towns that cannot build Parthenons or Cathedrals will generally have higher Unrest as they grow, and so once again are not good targets for the Dark Rituals spell. Eventually, when a town is close to maximizing its population and has relatively low unrest, you may want to cast Dark Rituals on it to get a few extra points even at the cost of reduced growth and increased unrest. This is totally up to you, of course, as the drawbacks may still prove troublesome. Category:Town Enchantments Category:Death